Judge: Woman Accused Of Killing Granddaughter Unfit For Trial

CHICAGO (STMW) — An Oak Lawn woman charged with murdering her 5-month-old granddaughter with a sledgehammer and knife is not mentally fit to stand trial at this time, a Cook County Circuit Court judge ruled Monday.

Judge Clayton Crane agreed with the findings of psychiatrist Dr. Matthew Markos, of Cook County Forensic Clinical Services, who in May found Alfreda Giedrojc unfit to stand trial.

After a series of delays the past few months, her fitness hearing finally was held before Crane at the Cook County Criminal Courts Building at 26th Street and California Avenue in Chicago.

It took all of five minutes for Crane to issue his ruling.

He told Giedrojc that she must return to court Aug. 28, at which time her treatment schedule will be unveiled. The judge also said Giedrojc, 62, must be re-evaluated after one year to determine whether she is fit to stand trial after treatment.

The Polish immigrant, who needs an interpreter during court appearances, was dressed in jail-issued blue coveralls over a white shirt. She used her left hand to pat down her graying hair as she entered the courtroom. No family members attended the hearing.

Her lawyer, assistant public defender Michael Wilson, was not available for comment after the judge’s ruling.

Giedrojc is to remain in the Cook County Jail, where she has resided since Oct. 6, the day that police say she used a sledgehammer and carving knife to kill Vivian Summers.

The gruesome killing shook Oak Lawn residents, as well as the battle-tested police officers and paramedics who first arrived on the horrific scene that Sunday morning.

The baby’s father, Joe Summers, of Bolingbrook, had brought her to her grandparents’ house so Giedrojc could watch her while he helped his brother-in-law with a repair project at his house across the street from where Giedrojc and her husband lived, officials said. The baby’s mother is Amy Summers, the daughter of Alfreda and her husband, Boleslaw.

After the baby was brought to the home, Boleslaw went across to his son’s home to check on the project, leaving Alfreda alone with Vivian, prosecutors said. Giedrojc took the sleeping infant off a couch, placed her on the floor and got a sledgehammer that she had placed in a closet the night before, they said.

Giedrojc repeatedly struck the baby with the sledgehammer, and because the baby “was still crying and moving, the defendant then went to the kitchen and retrieved a large carving knife,” using it to slit the infant’s throat, according to a prosecutor at a hearing in October.

Giedrojc admitted to the killing in a videotaped statement, prosecutors told a judge at that hearing in Bridgeview. Prosecutors and police did not speculate about her motive but said she did not have any previous arrests.

Giedrojc came to America from her native Poland in 1983 and has an eighth-grade education. She and her husband, who is retired, raised four children and have lived in Oak Lawn for 20 years, prosecutors have said.

Oak Lawn Police Chief Michael Murray said police got a 911 call from Giedrojc’s house at 10:46 a.m. that day. He said Boleslaw Giedrojc returned home from their son’s house, saw what happened and called the police.

It was the first murder in three years in Oak Lawn.

Giedrojc has been in the jail since that day. A judge denied her bail the day after the killing.

The court-ordered psychiatric evaluation of Giedrojc was due in March but was delayed. At an April hearing, more time was requested to submit the report, which was submitted in May. Her fitness hearing was set for June 30, but was delayed three times until Monday.